In a statement linked to a Decision on the supervision of the execution of a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights by Russia, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers calls on the Russian authorities to immediately restore the application of Ukrainian law in Crimea, to cease all administrative practices deemed contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights, to release all Ukrainian political prisoners, soldiers, civilians and journalists, and to put an end to the ethnic discrimination of the Crimean Tatars.
The Committee highlights that in 2014, Russia illegally extended the application of Russian law in Crimea. It also condemns instances of ill-treatment, torture, enforced disappearances and arbitrary and incommunicado detentions.
Delivered in June 2024, the Court’s ruling followed an interstate case brought by Ukraine against Russia.
It concerned multiple violations of the European Convention on Human Rights linked to Russia’s occupation of Crimea between 27 February 2014 and 16 September 2022 (the date on which Russia ceased to be a party to the Convention).
Despite its exclusion from the Council of Europe in March 2022, Russia is still obliged to comply with the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights.
However, it has ceased all communication with the Committee of Ministers, which the Committee deplores.
Link to the Decision of the Committee of Ministers: https://aeur.eu/f/fwa (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)